Replacin' carpet on the stairs with hardwood

Hi,
We are looking to replace the carpets on the stairs of our home with the hardwood.Any ideas on better place with a better deal to get this done? [?]
Thanks...

 

My guess is you are looking at a pretty expensive change. Century Stairs would be where I would start.

 

Ashley,
We just did that this past December. We used Sterling Carpet and were pleased with the results. We had not had our basement finished by the builder but did have the builder finish the staircase to the basement and a bathroom in the basement. We didn't think to get the oak staircase to the basement as we had to the second floor, so we had carpet.

I'm in a Miller and Smith SFH in Brambleton house that has a staircase with an angled landing. The landing required a bit of cutting and the original edge on the stair treads had to be cut off to accommodate the new edge; the amount of cutting involved in the landing and stair edges increased the cost. To me it was worth the upfront cost because carpet seems to get dirtier and wear so quickly on the stairs.

 

We needed to change/replace the carpet the first year we moved in...We had opted for upgraded carpets on the staircase, the builder put a different but higher quality carpets which we did not like as the color did not match with the rest of the carpets ,also with the hardwood on the main level. We insisted to have the exact carpets we had paid for.They put the lowest quality with the same color as we wanted,at the same time insisting it was the carpet we had opted for..Did not fight too much with them..Now the carpets is unbearably ugly..Imagine it's going up from the main living room which has this beautiful hardwood floors! We need to change them ASAP,and preferable put hardwood to coordinate with the living room floor.
Is it feasible to do on our own? or even Lowes or Home Depot should help?

 

What type of wood are the stairs made out of now?

 

may be it is oak..

 

Ashley,
From watching the installer do our stairs, I would not recommend it as a DIY project. There might be some really competent DIYers who could take on this task. It still took a professional installer from about 8 am to 8 pm (he didn't stop for lunch either) to complete the job (which was about 13 steps and the landing).

 

I would not even attempt to do this yourself unless you are very experienced with wood working. Oak is probably the most common hardwood flooring but there are a whole bunch of choices from exotics such as zebra wood to many of the new floors that can be about anything.

Make sure they just don't cover the existing treads without checking if the risers between floors will be the same which could be dangerous and against code if they are not.


A funny story I designed this home many years ago that had a very large trophy room 30 feet by 60 feet to show off his stuffed animal collection he obtained on many a safari. Please no comments from save the animal people.

Anyway we used Zebra Wood for the walls cabinets beams etc. The client actually went to africa to pick out his zebra trees for the wood to be used. Well after the carpenters installed all this wood they were 2 feet short on the last wall. The client went back to Africa and got another zebra tree just for this two feet. Although we eventually found ways to use the rest of the wood in the home.

Lee J. Buividas

 

I guess, we will have to go with professionals. Did you use someone from around our area? Any idea how much did it cost? We also have around 13 steps with a lander..'Will really appreciate any leads.
Thanks

 

Ashley,
We used Sterling Carpet on Shaw Road. We were pleased with the results. I think the rep we worked with was Jim Dougherty (I'm confident on the last name--just not sure on the last name; he has dark brown hair and glasses).

 

Maeve,

We have the M&S townhome in Broadlands and have been contemplating doing the same thing. Would you mind sharing what it actually cost you to have done? I know there will be variances depending on material etc., but I want to know if it is an expense we want right now. You can email me privately if you like (lsnellbaker at hotmail.com)

Thanks!

LaDonna

clwjl5

 

LaDonna,
I believe we paid about $2000 to $2200 for the stairs. We did it at the same time we had our basement carpeted. From what I remember, the materials were a fraction of the cost; most of the cost was for the labor (the need to make all those cuts).

 

Maeve,

Thank you!! That was about what we were expecting. Definitely worth the investment the carpet does not hold up well at all - since it is such a high traffic area.

LaDonna

clwjl5

 

I would say this is a subjective conclusion.